Before Dawn
by whenitsalldone
Summary: "There are dark times ahead," Everyone seems to be saying, but so far, Nora Montgomery has never experienced such a thing in all her years. But recently.. things have started to change, including her. Everyone is right. Dark times are ahead. And these dark times are going to change Nora's life forever, whether she wants it to or not.


_Before Dawn. _

Chapter 1

"I'm going to kill you, Sirius!" I yelled, running after the laughing boy. I wasn't normally a runner but right now, all I wanted was to catch up to him and give him a piece of my mind.

"Alright!" Sirius said, slowing down and turning to face me. A grin was still on his face. I wanted to slap it off, "Truce? Cease fire?" he asked, hands raised in surrender.  
"Fine." I said angrily, arms crossed, waiting for some kind of apology.  
Sirius smiled and just by that, I almost forgave him. No, you're angry, no allowances just because he's cute, I reminded myself sternly. My eyebrows rose, "well? what do you have to say for yourself?"  
"Have you done something different with your hair?" he said and then he was laughing again, loud barks of laughter that normally made me laugh with him; he had that kind of laugh.  
"Wrong answer, I think!" I said before stepping towards him. My face was stern, and my normally dark brown eyes were probably black with anger.  
Sirius stared at me with one eyebrow up and a small smirk on his face, "I don't know why you're so angry Nora -"  
"My hair is blue!" I yell at him, pulling out strands of my now vibrant-coloured hair to emphasize the point, "It's freaking _blue, _Sirius, and, as you can probably see, it is _not my colour!_"  
And the famous, Sirius Black grin is still on his irritating face. It turns into the expression he normally wears when he flirts with one of his many admirers, "I think you look amazing in -"

"You can't charm your way out of this one, Black!" I warned and he pouted.

"That's all I've got," he sighed and then walked over to me and slung an arm over my shoulder, ignoring my glares. He started to lead me off back in the direction of the common room, "I'm sure Lily, being a spell and potions encyclopaedia, will know how to do something about... that." The _that_ referring to my hair. Did I mention my dear friend here, turned it blue?  
"Let's hope so," I muttered as we approach the portrait of the fat lady, "So... just to clarify... you aren't going to apologise?"

Sirius barks out a laugh which makes me elbow him in the side, not that my weak hit even effects him in any way, "Of course not. I'm not even sorry!"

"I thought so," I sigh, "Give me your jumper. Now."  
"Er - what?"  
"Calm down, you'll get it back, I just don't want people to see.. _this_." Again, the _this_ referring to my hair. With a sigh, he pulled the jumper off and practically threw it at me.  
"Ooh, angry Sirius," I cooed as I pulled it on, "Tentacula," I said to the Fat Lady. As her portrait swung open, I pulled the hood up over my hair and quickly walked through, and straight up to my dormitory. I hoped Lily was alone in there. Marlene and Alice, they would be fine, but Lucy has the biggest mouth in the year. Then of course there's Roxanne, and if she was in there, I would rather go to class with this blue hair than have to talk to her.

"Lily?" I called from outside the door. There was a rustle, and I could just imagine her quickly jumping up from her bed where she'd been reading, to make it seem like she had been doing something constructive.  
"Nora? Where - Why aren't you coming inside?" she asked, confusion evident in her voice. I heard footsteps and then suddenly there was the redhead herself, staring at me. Her eyes take in the hood and they widen slightly, "Is that - were you - what have you - your hair! - huh?"  
I feel a frown grow on my face at her mumbling. "Come again?"  
"Your hair!" she said, grabbing my arm and pulling me into the room. The hood slipped off my head and my blue hair tumbled down to just below my chest, she let out a little gasp and grabbed a lock of my hair. "What did you do to it?"  
"Nothing! It was Sirius. He swapped my shampoo with a potion... Lily, please tell me you know something we could do in... Oh god, 10 minutes?" I cried after checking my watch. No way could people see me with blue hair. I looked horrendous!  
Lily looked doubtful and my heart sank. "I swear, I'm going to kill that boy!" I started to walk back down to find Sirius when Lily grabbed my arm, a thoughtful expression on her face.  
"Wait! Come here and sit down.." she led me to the dressing table in our room - normally the rest of us didn't get a chance to use it because Roxanne would be attached to it constantly. I could feel Lily's hands brushing through my hair until she froze, and I knew she had just gotten an idea.  
"...Lily -"  
"Sh! I'm working."  
Knowing not to interrupt again, I mimed zipping my mouth and then waited tensely for a few minutes while she just went through my hair and then finally, she put her wand to it and said something before shrieking and with a flick of her wand, the mirror flipped so I couldn't see.

"What? Lily, what is it?" I cried, panic building inside, and tried to touch my hair but Lily's hands slapped them away. Lily cried out something else and I heard her sigh.  
"Slight problem," she started, coming to stand in front of me.  
"Really? I didn't notice."  
"I can't do it. I'm sorry!" she said, with pity in her eyes, "You could... tie it up? We could speak to Professor Slughorn because I can't use my wand on it because.. well... for a minute your hair disappeared when I tried to-"  
"-IT WHAT?"  
"It's back now don't worry!" Lily added hastily before getting up, "Okay... so I'll leave you to get dressed.. meet you at breakfast?"  
"Yeah," I sighed, leaning forward to pull down the mirror and inspect the mess caused by that git downstairs. He's probably laughing about it right now, I thought.

I'll get him back for this...

"Good luck!" Lily said before leaving me alone in the dormitory.

With a large sigh, I stared in the mirror for a few more seconds before getting up to change into my uniform, all the while thinking one thing: I hate Sirius Black.

-

_Just go in, Nora. _

_no.. I can't! _

_Since when have you been a wimp? Come on, it's easy, step forward and open the door and then it's done!_

_no.. I can't!  
_It went on like that for a few minutes, inside my head; both parts of my mind arguing as I stood outside the doors to the Main Hall. So far, between the Common Room and here, I had passed about ten pairs of wide eyes. Yes, I felt like yelling, I have blue hair, big deal! Stranger things have happened!

"Hey, Nora you going in - Whoa!"  
"If you point out the fact that I have blue hair, Remus, I will kill you right now," I warned as the boy walked closer to me. He snapped his mouth shut and nodded. "Good, boy," I added before finally opening the door and walking in to breakfast - I decided it was too cruel on my rumbling stomach to not. I heard footsteps behind me and knew Remus had followed me in.  
"I'm assuming by the stares, this is your first appearance?" He whispered to me as we walked over to the others.  
"Yep," I sighed before reaching the table and sitting down next to Lily, who smiled. Sirius was laughing again.

Git.

"Trying a new look, Monty?" James asked.  
I glared at him before grabbing a piece of toast, "I thought that nickname had died down..." I sighed adding jam to my toast and then taking a tasty bite.  
"You thought wrong," He grinned.  
"Great," I moaned, "So Sirius, you got me into this mess, how are you going to sort it out?" I asked the dark haired boy opposite me.  
"You're clever," he said waving his hand, "You'll figure something out..."  
"Lily is smarter than me and _she _couldn't do anything!" I said retorted. I expected him to sigh and then tell me how to do it, but he just shrugged.  
"It's a potion. Slughorn'll be able to fix it."  
"Told you," Lily said with a smile.  
I rolled my eyes and took another bite of toast but stopped chewing suddenly, feeling eyes on the back of my head, I turned around and my eyes ended up on the Slytherin table. Avery, well known bully and all around git was staring at me with raised eyebrows. Our gazes locked and he winked at me before smiling. Ugh. I shivered and turned around.

"Well, I just lost my appetite. Ready to go, Lil?" I asked but stopped when I saw that Lily was facing a full plate of food still, I laughed and then shook my head when she stood up, "No, Lily. It's fine, stay and eat. See you later..."  
I started to walk away from the table.

"Wait, Nora!" I heard, only a few steps away from the table. Sirius was coming towards me.

"I don't have all day," I said in a sing-song voice as he walked in his usual slow strut.

"It's still early, I don't start moving fast until the afternoon," he grumbled. We continued to walk out the hall together.  
"You seemed to be able to run pretty fast this morning," I reminded him. We turned the corner and started off towards our Charms class.  
"Well, that's because some crazy bird with blue hair was chasing me."  
That earned him a elbow to the ribs. I smiled when he yelped and jumped away from me. He looked at me with eyebrows raised, clearly waiting for an apology.  
"I would say sorry but... I'm not, so I won't."  
"Fair enough.."

Silently, we walked the rest of the way until we got to the door, a few students were already in there, but others were waiting outside the room, not quite ready to go into the first lesson of the week, yet. They all turned and stared at my hair, amused expressions on their faces. Oh, yay!

"Oh look, how nice of everyone to notice your new look, Monty!" Sirius said with exaggerated glee; his hands clasped together and a goofy smile on his face as he looked at me.  
"I hate you," I said.  
"No you don't," he said sweetly, walking into the classroom.  
"No... I don't" I agreed quietly, following him in.


End file.
